Ageless Wonder Bartolo Colon To Make Twins Debut Tuesday

The Big Sexy isn’t done yet. Newly minted Twins pitcher Bartolo Colon will make his Minnesota debut on Tuesday against the New York Yankees. This will be the 10th team for whom Colon has pitched in his 20-year career. Colon began this season with the Atlanta Braves, who brought him on along with fellow veteran R.A. Dickey, but let Colon go after posting a kind of shocking 8.14 ERA over 13 starts.

Colon made his debut in 1997 at 185 pounds with the Cleveland Indians. He’s had a solid career with four All-Star appearances, a Cy Young Award, and led the American League in wins in 2005. He’ll slowly stroll to the mound Tuesday at 285 pounds, filling the Twins’ fifth rotation spot and just hoping to stick around for a while longer.

“He’s a completely different guy than I faced. It was high-end stuff. Some of the guys around today, [Max] Scherzer and people like that who can blow you away — he was that guy for a long time,” Twins manager Paul Molitortold the Star Tribune. “He’s learned to make adjustments along the way to find a way to continue to pitch in the major leagues, which is impressive in itself.”

While his longevity, or perhaps persistence, is impressive on its own, Colon has been more of a source of entertainment than a stalwart arm out to get wins. He was at the center of the single most miraculous moment in baseball history in 2016 when he hit, at age 43, his first career home run.